Prison renovations to benefit Limestone Correctional Facility most

MONTGOMERY -- As part of a $98 million renovation of state prison facilities, the Limestone Correctional Facility is in line to receive more dollars than any prison, about $12.6 million, officials said Thursday.

A study conducted for the state Department of Corrections in 2007 showed the agency needed about $94 million in maintenance and repair work.

The cash-strapped DOC is on the verge of generating the money needed to make about three-fourths of the repairs and updates cited in the 2007 study.

Prison Commissioner Richard Allen said Thursday the department will ask the joint Legislative Contract Review Committee next Thursday to approve two contracts that will generate about $77 million for the projects over the next two years.

"It's going to let us fix things that have been broken for years," said Allen.

The $77 million will be generated through long-term, lease-purchase financing with two energy companies, Milwaukee-based-Johnson Controls and NORESCO of Westborough, Mass. And $21 million will come from a federal stimulus grant.

The contracts will be repaid with guaranteed energy savings from improvements made to the DOC facilities, said Allen.

Following the 2007 study, Allen said the department tried raise funds by selling land, but that market tried up quickly.

Under the contracts with Johnson Controls and NORESCO, DOC facilities will be able to reduce water consumption; reduce electricity and natural gas consumption by retrofitting lamps, ballasts and lighting fixtures and repairing, retrofitting or replacing existing air handling units, temperature controls; replacing leaky roofs and defective windows; replacing worn out and outdated appliances; and replacing laundry systems.

"We've had to literally wait for something to break and then we fix it," he said. "The vast majority of our equipment gets run into the ground, and we throw a lot of maintenance dollars at it. I thought we were going to have to nickel-and-dime it forever."

Brown said the two energy companies reviewed each piece of energy-related equipment in each DOC facility before determining the department could generate the savings to pay for the new equipment.

Rodney Blankenship, deputy commissioner for financial planning, said a total of 62 DOC facilities will have work done.

Blankenship said some non-energy-related work left undone included paving projects and interior doors and locks.

"If it could be related to energy, we addressed all of those," he said.